GORDON & SIMMONS, LLC

Firm Enters Fray Against School Assessment Testing

Gordon & Simmons has been retained by Frederick County school activist Cindy Rose to take up her challenge to annual mandatory assessment testing in Maryland public schools. Shawn Cavenee and Chris deBettencourt entered their appearance as lawyers for Rose in her declaratory judgment action against the Frederick County Board of Education, where she is seeking a judicial declaration confirming a parent’s right to refuse to allow testing of his or her child. Beginning in third grade, students attending Maryland public schools are subject to annual assessment testing. The assessment testing is intended to comply with requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act and to incorporate new Common Core curriculum standards. Rose initially filed the action as a pro se litigant when Frederick County Public Schools sought to bar Rose’s middle school daughter from attending school during the testing period after she refused to participate in testing in March 2014. Gordon & Simmons has just recently entered its appearance and filed an opposition to a summary judgment motion filed on behalf of the school system.